


Pisces

by SunMoonAndSpoon



Category: Death Note
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:36:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3166766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunMoonAndSpoon/pseuds/SunMoonAndSpoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lighthearted conversation about astrology turns into a more emotionally charged conversation about the ethics of criminal justice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pisces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhiteLadyDragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteLadyDragon/gifts).



> This is a commission for WhiteLadyDragon. Erin Blogger (refered to here by her pseudonym, Elin Crocker) is an original character belonging to them. If you liked my depiction of her and want to learn more, please check out WhiteLadyDragon's The Story of L, Kira, and the Death Note. Also, if you're interested in commissioning me to write something for you, please feel free to contact me here, or through my Tumblr—http://sunmoonandspoon.tumblr.com/
> 
> This story is set during the "Light-is-handcuffed-to-L-and-doesn't-remember-being-Kira" part of the series.

“Matsuda-san, Amane-san, and Ms. Crocker, please either take your conversation elsewhere, or talk about something that isn't so inane. Light and I are having and important discussion about the Kira case, and we'd appreciate it if you didn't interrupt us.” Light nods cautiously, not wanting to offend Misa but very much wanting them to be quiet. They have a ton of security footage to analyze, and it's impossible to focus on that when other people are talking. Especially if they're talking about...what are they talking about?

 

“Astrology is not an legitimate science,” claims L. “It has a long and beautiful history, but it is not based on scientifically verified information, and more importantly, it's not relevant to the Kira case.” 

 

“It _could_ be relevant,” says Elin, folding her arms and crossing her legs. “Maybe if we figure out which sign matches what we know about Kira, we'll be able to figure out Kira's approximate birthday. Don't you think that would narrow down our list of suspects?” 

 

“That would be helpful if zodiac signs were accurate markers of personality, but they are not. Personalities are complex, and most people can find something of themselves in each sign.” L takes an oversized bite out of a cookie the size of his face. 

 

“Some people actually believe in it you doodlebop, you don't have to be so fucking rude.” Elin leans back in her chair. “Maybe if you actually tried learning about it you'd see there was something to it.”

 

“Okay, fine.” L swivels around in his computer chair, yanking Light's arm in the process. Light hisses at him to _watch it_. “Teach me, Ms. Crocker.” Another bite of cookie disappears into his mouth, leaving a trail of crumbs on his lips. Light winces, mentally willing L to wipe them off, but of course he doesn't. 

 

Elin tosses her head back and laughs. “Of course I will. I'm glad you're interested in learning something new. If you weren't, you wouldn't make a very good detective, now would you? Anyway, I'll give some examples of people in the room—you'll see how much it lines up.” Her finger lands on Misa, who waves and smiles. “Misa over there is a Capricorn. Capricorns are patient, and it's  _ obvious  _ that Misa is  _ very  _ patient, otherwise she wouldn't be able to put up with this whole investigation nonsense.” She rolls her eyes, and Misa nods enthusiastically. “Matsuda's a Sagittarius, which means that he's happy, clumsy, and extroverted.” Matsuda's chest puffs out, and he smiles, apparently able to ignore the  _ 'clumsy'  _ part. Elin continues, “I'm an Aries, which means I'm enthusiastic, adventurous, and sociable. Aren't all of those things true?” 

 

“Maybe, if you ignore the fact that you're cherrypicking the attributes that you think fit and ignoring the ones that don't. Matsuda-san isn't exactly intelligent and Amane-san isn't exactly organized. Actually, I take that back. The second Kira had to have been highly organized to pull off what she did.” 

 

Smacking her forehead and groaning, Elin says, “ughhhh this is such pigeonshit, Misa is  _ not  _ the second Kira, holy fucking...whatever. May I continue, your grand high holy lordship?”

 

 

“Please,” says L, through a mouthful of cookie. Light points out that maybe they ought to get back to work soon, and L shrugs. “Let her finish. It never hurts to know more about a subject some people take seriously. Besides, do you honestly think Ms. Crocker is going to leave us alone if she doesn't get to finish?”

 

“Misa will leave you alone!” shouts Misa, sidling up to Light and nuzzling her cheek against his. He wishes she wouldn't be quite so publicly affectionate—then again, public is their only option as long as he's handcuffed to the sleepless detective. He sighs, and tells Misa that this isn't leaving him alone. “Well, you don't want me to leave you _totally_ alone, do you? You'd miss me too much!” He pets the back of her head and doesn't say anything in response. He doesn't have to, because Elin is talking again.

 

“Ryuuzaki, I think you're a Scorpio. Confirm or deny?”

 

“I decline to answer. It would be idiotic of me to reveal my date of birth to two Kira suspects.” Another huge bite from the cookie, which has by this point almost disappeared. L angles his neck toward the hallway, looking for Watari to fix his snack situation. 

 

He's going to die if he keeps eating like this, but Light doesn't say that. Instead, he says, “Elin, why do you think he's a Scorpio?”

 

“I'll start with the positive. Ryuuzaki, you're incredibly focused. I've never seen anyone dedicate as much uninterrupted time to their work as you. You're intuitive—you've got great instincts, even though you're wrong about this _this_ particular case.” She rolls her eyes. Light will have to remember to thank her for sticking up for him next time he gets a minute away from L. “Now it's time for the bad stuff,” says Elin. “Scorpios are secretive because they don't trust people...that fits you perfectly. They're manipulative—that's you! You're totally manipulative. They're resentful. Yup. And jealous...hm. Not sure, but I'm willing to bet that you are.”

 

“And they're perverts, too!” shouts Misa, squeezing Light's hand much too hard. _Who's the pervert here exactly?_ He sighs, and asks Elin to continue.

 

“No, I think I've heard enough,” L says. “The next step is predicting my future, and I'm not interested in that in any way whatsoever.” 

 

Once, late at night, L had talked about a particularly creepy person he met under circumstances he would not divulge. This person had insisted that they could predict the future, and they had predicted that L would die of a heart attack before age 30. At the time, L had brushed it off as a crack about his unhealthy diet, but after Kira started killing people with heart attacks, its possible that it's actually started to bother him. So of course, he doesn't want to hear anything about his future.

 

Elin rolls her her eyes and says, “fine you fucking jerk. Light, let me do your horoscope!!”

 

“I guess, sure? If we have time, that is...” Light looks at L, who ignores him. Watari has just appeared with a strawberry parfait, which L is focusing his attention on. He's also scribbling something into a notebook, which means he'll be busy for a while. They have time. He's not particularly enthused about continuing to speak to someone who can't stop cursing, but she isn't going anywhere, and Light isn't going to tell her off—that would be rude, and he's got to take the high road somewhere. 

 

Elin plops down on the couch next to him, earning a glare and a stuck-out tongue from Misa. “Light, when's your birthday?” she asks. Light replies that it's February 28 th .

 

“Ahh, you're a Pisces. That means that you're kind, compassionate, selfless...you know, these are all such _nice_ things. And you are a genuinely nice person. I hardly ever meet anyone as nice as you. It's hard for me to understand how somebody who cares so much about other people could possibly be a cold-blooded murderer.”

 

“Kira may be a murderer, but he's not exactly cold-blooded,” says Light, taking a sip from his _hojicha_. “What Kira is doing is obviously wrong, but he isn't doing it out of malice. He's killing criminals, and he thinks that he's making the world a better place by doing that. He's _wrong_ , but I don't think that makes him evil or cruel, just someone who is wrong and needs to be stopped.”

 

“Why do you think he's wrong, exactly?” asks Elin, whipping out a notebook in a spasm of journalism. “What about Kira's philosophy do you disagree with?”

 

“Ms. Crocker, I'll ask you to recall our policy on not publicizing anything that's discussed here until the case has concluded,” says L through a mouthful of ice cream.  


 

“ _Obviously.”_ Elin rolls her eyes. “I just want notes for once this whole thing is over. They'll be under lock and key like everything else. Anyway, Light?” She elbows him in the chest, not quite hard enough to hurt. “Spill it.” 

 

 

L's wide eyes grow wider, and he leans forward on his crusty bare feet, finally interested. Light tries not to groan. Anything he says will be filed away as evidence of his guilt. Last night Light woke up at 3 AM, his face spritzed with frigid sweat because he dreamed about being shepherded to an electric chair, L walking beside him and saying he was sorry, so sorry, but Light was a murderer and shouldn't he, as Kira, believe that murder ought to beget murder? This makes Light so uncomfortable he can barely will himself to speak. Light isn't Kira, he knows that, but sometimes it feels like what he knows doesn't matter. L will find him guilty anyway.

 

So he answers Elin with a chunk of ice in his throat. “It's nothing particularly complex. Kira is a murderer. Murder is wrong, not to mention illegal. Kira doesn't have the right to punish people, that's the job of the government and the police.”

 

Elin taps her pen against her temple. “Well, what exactly gives the government the right to make those decisions? If the government puts someone to death, it's not illegal, but is it really any more or less immoral than what Kira's doing? It's still humans making a decision that humans probably shouldn't be fucking making—a decision about whether someone else gets to live or die. Kira might be an violent piece of shit, but he's not really any worse than anyone else, ya feel me?”

 

“I guess I can see what you mean...” Light doesn't want to indulge this line of thought any further, not with L salivating over his words like a fucking jackal. 

 

“Of course you can, you're a genius, right? Anyway that's the problem with Kira, isn't it? That he thinks he's so fucking special that he can make decisions better made by a god.” Elin brushes her hair behind her left ear. Light sighs. Something inside him bristles at this, but he doesn't know what and doesn't want to know, so he stuffs it down and blames it on fear of L. He wishes Elin would shut up, that he didn't have to have this conversation.

 

He takes another sip of tea. It's grown lukewarm, so he thinks about getting up and reheating it, dispensing altogether with this conversation. Then he realizes that of course he can't do that, because he'd have to convince L to come with him. Luckily, Matsuda is saying something now, so he doesn't have to be respond. “The police are specially trained to know what the law is,” he says. “And Kira...well, we don't exactly know yet what kind of training Kira has, but we know that he's killing people who wouldn't get the death penalty for what they did. But then they get out of prison and keep doing it, so maybe Kira has a point. Maybe those people don't need to be part of society.” His face glows red. “I'm just speaking hypothetically, of course.”

 

“Yeah, it's a thought exercise! Matsu-chan's a brilliant thinker!” Misa pats his shoulder gently. Light is surprised that he doesn't feel jealous at all, then decides it's probably a good thing. He's a good boyfriend because Misa gets to do what she wants and he isn't possessive or controlling about it. That doesn't mean he doesn't care. Not caring would make him a bad person. And so would supporting Kira, even if Matsuda's point is a pretty good one...

 

“No, no, no, that's pigeon shit and you know it!” Elin is standing up, waving her notebook around. “The problem is that prisons don't help people learn how to be better! From what I've learned about the prison system in Japan, its even worse than the one in America, and the one in America is terrible.” She crosses her arm, sticks her chin out. “People don't learn to behave better through punishment, they learn when they get the tools to do it. Most criminals are only criminals because they had no other choice.”

 

“Do you have the statistics to back that up, Ms. Crocker?” asks L. Elin blushes furiously and says that she doesn't, but that most statistics are fabricated nonsense anyway, and shouldn't L know that, isn't he supposed to be _smart?_ L rolls his eyes, and takes another bite of his now almost completely melted ice cream.  
  
“Whatever. Light, what do _you_ think? I'm interested in what _you_ think. You're accused of being Kira, so do you think that government's system of punishments is enough, or do you think something else should be done?” She sits back down, crosses her legs and peers at him with wide, intent eyes. 

 

What Light believes is not what he ought to say. Light is not a murderer. He is not Kira. But he also knows that some people are evil in a bone-deep way, and that no amount of rehabilitation or counseling or opportunities or education will fix that. Some people—not Light—are killers. Some people are rapists. Some people are thieves. People kill their own children because they don't feel like taking care of them, people put kittens in ovens because they want to watch them burn. Some people are demons and those people should be...something. Locked up? Killed by the state? The police? Not Light because...because something. He doesn't know. Why, exactly, shouldn't he be Kira? He's smart enough, has good enough judgment to know who truly shouldn't be part of this world...but he can't think about that, not now, not with L glowering at him and Elin staring at him with a smile plastered to her face and a pen in her hand.

 

And so he shrugs, runs a rake of fingers through his hair. “No system is perfect,” he says. “But I think we're using the best one there is.”

 

Elin frowns, purses her lips. “Well, that's a Pisces for you. Doesn't bother to think too hard if he doesn't care. Though why you wouldn't care is totally fucking beyond me, given your situation.”

 

“Light-kun is under so much stress right now!” chirps Misa, stroking Light's arm. He can feel her moisturizer through his sweater. “How can you expect him to decide how criminals should be dealt with in ten seconds, when he's so stressed and it's such a difficult and complicated topic! My Light-kun only wants to give the topic his very best, not just say a bunch of random uninformed things, right baby?” Her eyes practically glitter with love. Light pats her head, so grateful he feels a lump form in his throat. Then he's just annoyed with himself. Why hadn't he been able to think of that? What is it about Elin that's disarming him so much? 

 

“Whatever,” says Elin. “I want to see if I can convince Aizawa to let me do his horoscope. Catch you nerds later.” 

 

As she disappears out the door, L says through a mouthful of ice cream that, “you know, I could probably train her to help me with interrogating suspects. She sure scared the hell out of you, Light. And gave me some valuable data while she was at it.”

 

Before Light can demand  _ what valuable data??  _ L is ignoring him in favor of describing to Watari exactly what kind of cake he'd like over the phone. This is going to keep him up all night, but there's nothing he can do about it if L won't talk. “Tell Watari I'd like some cake too,” he says wearily. “Black Forest. Please.” 

 


End file.
